Work for Giants

The Campaign and Battle of Tupelo/Harrisburg, Mississippi, June-July 1864

Thomas E. Parson

• Verlag: The Kent State University Press
• Jahr: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781612778686
• Thema: Histoire
• Thema: Histoire de la guerre de Sécession

During the summer of 1864 a Union column, commanded by Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson Smith, set out from Tennessee with a goal that had proven impossible in all prior attempts - to find and defeat the cavalry under the command of Confederate major general Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest's cavalry was the greatest threat to the long supply line feeding Sherman's armies as they advanced on Atlanta.

Smith marched at the head of his "gorillas, " veteran soldiers who were fresh from the Red River Campaign. Aside from diverting Confederate attention away from Sherman, Smith's orders were to destroy Southern railroads and confront Forrest in Mississippi. Just weeks earlier, a similar Union expedition had met with disaster at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads, perhaps the greatest victory of Forrest's military career.

Joined by reinforcements led by Lt. Gen. Stephen Dill Lee, Forrest and his men were confident and their morale had never been higher. However, for two weeks, Smith outmarched, outfought, and outmaneuvered the team of Lee and Forrest. In three days of bitter fighting, culminating in the battle at Harrisburg, the Confederates suffered a staggering defeat. Forrest's corps was devastated. He and his men would recover but would never regain their earlier strength, nor would they ever again prove a serious threat to veteran Union infantry.

Work for Giants focuses on the details of this overlooked campaign and the efforts, postbattle and postwar, to minimize the outcome and consequences of an important Union victory. Parson draws heavily from previously untapped diaries, letters and journals, and eyewitness accounts, bringing to life the oppressive heat, cruel depredations, and brutal combat the soldiers encountered, and the stoic humor they used to endure them.

Index

Abraham, Lot, 36, 63, 82, 77, 125

Adams, Wirt, 41, 42, 44, 70, 74, 168

Anders, Leslie, 276

Anderson, Charles, 169, 180, 295

Anderson, Jesse, 255, 261–62

Anderson, Robert, 17

Andrews, Hiram, 230

Appler, Jesse, 132

Atkinson, Thomas, 101

Atlanta campaign, 3–4

Aughey, John, 90

Ballard, Michael, 290, 293–94, 299

Bandy, Jacob, 109

Banks, Nathaniel P., 1–3, 8

Banks, Ralla, 193

Barnett, Thomas, 209, 216, 234, 236–37

Barr, William, 145

Barteau, Clark: background of, 101; and Bell’s attack, 198–99; at Camargo Crossroads, 147–50, 153–54; and engagement on Pontotoc Rd., 96, 101–2; en route to Pinson’s Hill, 122; and picket of the Tupelo Rd., 105, 110

Barteau, Harrison, 101

Bartlett, Aurelius, 62, 90–91, 140, 160–61, 192, 213–14, 231, 289

Bay, Hugh, 37

Bearss, Edwin C., 274, 285

Beauregard, Pierre G. T., 17, 157

Bell, Tyree, 96, 147, 149, 237, 247–48, 257, 295

Bell’s brigade, 95; attack on the Federal left, 237–40; attacks at Harrisburg, 195, 198–202, 204, 207; at Camargo Crossroads, 146–54, 157, 159; at Old Town Creek, 248, 250–52, 257, 259–60; ordered to Calhoun’s, 227, 232; ordered to close gap, 181, 192, 198; ordered to Okolona, 102, 106; ordered to Pinson’s Hill, 119, 122–23; positioned at Harrisburg, 171, 198; and pursuit of Federal column, 244, 247; on the Valley Rd., 127

Beltzhoover, Daniel, 74

Beltzhover’s battalion, 216

Benjamin, Judah, 60

Bennett, Erastus, 53, 64

Berry, Benjamin, 246, 257

Bertram’s Shop, engagement at, 139–46

Bir, Louis, 37

Blackwell, George, 153

Bonner, R. H., 42

Bouton, Edward, 25, 36, 55, 130–33, 138, 238–39

Bouton’s Colored brigade: and the flank march, 125, 130–34, 143; and Forrest’s night attack, 222–23; and the march from Harrisburg, 232, 238; and the march south form LaGrange, 79; and Old Town Creek, 246; opens route to LaGrange, 36; position at Harrisburg, 160, 177–78

Bowden, Bailey, 188

Boykin, Hamilton, 3

Bragg, Braxton, 16, 45, 46

Brame, James, 141

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